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IN MEMORIAM: Robert Shattuck Radspinner

Aug. 15, 2011 – Robert Shattuck Radspinner (’41 B.S. in forestry) of Blacksburg, Va., passed away Jan. 28, 2011, at the age of 91. Radspinner was a member of the first four-year forestry class to graduate from Virginia Tech; he also served in the Corps of Cadets and was one of the charter members of the Tech Glee Club. He married Martha Snidow (’42 B.S in general home economics) in 1942 and later served in World War II, receiving the Purple Heart for a wound received during the Battle of the Bulge. His professional career with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad spanned 38 years and included positions in Michigan and West Virginia before he retired in 1979 and moved to Blacksburg in 1987.

Radspinner and his seven fellow classmates had lost touch over the years but reunited with each other, as well as their former forestry professor, Jack Grantham, at their 45th reunion in 1985. “He wasn’t that much older than we were,” Radspinnner had recalled of Grantham, “and because he taught so many courses, we became very close.” In 1995, Radspinner and a number of his classmates visited Grantham at his home in Oregon. The following year, Radspinner organized the group to plant a Douglas fir tree and set a plaque on the Cheatham Hall lawn to honor their professor, who taught all the forestry classes in those early days.